Review the Biodiversity Duty Reporting system with a view to aligning with climate change reporting including consideration of voluntary engagement by business sector.
Objective 6: Take action on the indirect drivers of biodiversity loss
Priority Action 31. Address unsustainable supply and demand to reduce biodiversity impacts.
The Biodiversity Duty originates from the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004, as strengthened by the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011, which introduced the requirement for public bodies to report on biodiversity actions. This duty has now been further strengthened through the Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2026, which introduces statutory biodiversity targets and reinforces the requirement for public bodies to contribute to biodiversity improvement and monitoring. The 2026 Act strengthens the link between biodiversity duties and measurable national targets by requiring that progress towards biodiversity improvement is supported and assessed against statutory targets for nature recovery.
Current Biodiversity Duty reporting demonstrates increased transparency across public bodies, but evidence from published reports shows that approaches remain inconsistent in depth, format and measurable outcomes, limiting comparability and system-wide assessment.
Integration with climate reporting frameworks is still at an early stage, and there is currently no unified system that fully aligns biodiversity duty reporting with climate disclosure requirements or corporate sustainability reporting standards.
The Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2026 strengthens biodiversity duty requirements and introduces statutory biodiversity targets intended to support and measure progress in nature recovery.
Biodiversity Duty reporting under the 2004 Act (as amended) requires public bodies to report actions, but evidence shows variable quality and limited consistency in outcome measurement across organisations. The 2026 Act improves the legal framework for accountability, but implementation systems for consistent outcome reporting are still being developed. Integration with climate change reporting is under consideration, but there is no operational unified reporting framework yet linking biodiversity and climate disclosures. Voluntary business engagement remains outside statutory requirements, limiting coverage of private sector biodiversity impacts.
Overall, the system is moving from activity reporting toward outcome-based accountability, but consistent national measurement of ecological outcomes is not yet in place.
Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2026
Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011
Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004
NatureScot – Biodiversity Duty Reporting Guidance
Progress a range of actions to deliver a more circular economy in Scotland, through the Circular Economy & Waste Route Map and National Litter and Flytipping Strategy and implementation of the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024, in order to promote sustainable consumption and production of materials and products, and responsible disposal of Scotland’s waste.
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